Efficient Methods to Becoming Multilingual

Increasing Cultural Awareness

Alison Binger
Dorothy Hassan

The need for cultural competency has increased with the expansion of globalization, the increased interaction through technology, and breakdowns in communication, inequities, and prejudice (Mareno & Hart, 2014). Cultural awareness in both multicultural (Lew & Siffrinn, 2019) and monocultural (De La Forest, 2018; Fuller & Ahler, 2012) classrooms is essential to ensure students learn the necessary attitudes, skills, and knowledge to form authentic relationships and become equitable leaders in a diverse world (Binger & Hassan, 2021; Mareno & Hart, 2014). Foreign language learning improves students’ cultural awareness (Cakir, 2006; Jin-feng, 2007; Ortuno, 1991), second language learning promotes cultural awareness in preservice teachers (Larke, 1990; Ward & Ward, 2003), and multilingualism deepens cross-cultural empathy and global ethics (Krajewski, 2011; Rolbin & Chiesa, 2010) yet foreign language learning can be difficult for students (Dickinson & Carver, 1980; Ganschow, Sparks, & Javorsky, 1998; Nation, 2014). The complexity and the difficulty in learning foreign languages can shy students away from learning a new language. Research shows theories, classroom methods, and individual traits to why there are struggles to language learning but there is a gap in the literature of helpful techniques of language learning through multilinguals’ perspectives. In this qualitative study, we sought to findefficient methods of learning foreign languages through interviewing and analyzing polyglots’ perspectives of their techniques to learning multiple languages. We compared multilinguals’ language learning methods to find commonalities that assisted in unraveling the complexities in foreign language learning and reduced the difficulties in learning new languages.

Binger A. & Hassan, D. (2022, May 13). Efficient Methods to Becoming Multilingual: Increasing Cultural Awareness [Paper]. International Conference on Global Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education (ICGDI 2022), Clarion, Pennsylvania. https://harbor.klnpa.org/clarion/islandora/object/islandora%3A5435

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